On April 30th, UNC administration took drastic measures in response to Pro-Palestine demonstrations on campus. Early that Tuesday morning, student-protestors who had created an encampment outside of South Building were met by police force. Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts stated that protestors had violated university policy by installing tents and accessing campus buildings throughout the night. Roberts warned the group to disperse, or face consequences. By "consequences," Roberts was referring to the possible detainment, arrest, and expulsion of his own students. The law enforcement officers present on campus escalated tensions and met students with shocking violence. Stark images of Roberts leading the police and fraternizing with counter-protestors circulated across social media platforms. The actions of UNC administration on April 30th signaled a clear message to student activists: Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts will respond with either silence or violent repression, but never good-faith engagement.
Like several colleges and universities across the United States, students organized at UNC-Chapel Hill to show their support for Palestine. The demands were simple; organizers wanted the administration to be transparent about the university's possible investments in Israel—and if such financial ties exist—to divest and stop funding the ongoing genocide. Some may argue that police involvement is standard protocol at demonstrations to ensure the safety of those involved. However, as the events that took place on the 30th make clear, police presence in response to student protests is less about ensuring the safety of those involved and more about UNC administration repressing student concerns. This is not to say that protestors expect to have an easy-going conversation with Roberts about Israel and Palestine. Pushback is expected; violence is not. What is missing from Roberts' response to student demands is a willingness to engage with students on a topic that clearly affects a considerable amount of the student body. Instead, police force was the avenue Roberts saw as fit for dealing with the masses of students and community members asking to be heard.
UNC-Chapel Hill is no stranger to political activism and has served as a hub for student-led protests throughout history. In the early 1960s, students were active in protesting against the Speaker Ban, advocating for Civil Rights, and supporting the Food Workers Strikes initiated by on-campus cafeteria workers. From 1965 to 1970, UNC students participated in anti-war protests across campus, joining numerous colleges and universities throughout the country protesting the Vietnam War. The Pro-Palestine student protests of today follow in this longstanding tradition of student-led activism. The pro-Palestine encampments are especially reminiscent of one particular student movement: the anti-apartheid protests of the 1980s. While these two protest movements are very similar in terms of organizing and the specific demands made, the responses of UNC administration differed greatly. While Interim Chancellor Roberts chose to respond to protestors with police force—alienating this portion of his student body from any form of engagement or collaboration—Chancellor Christopher Fordham chose to thoughtfully engage with students of the Anti-Apartheid Support Group. Instead of repressing and targeting this group of student activists, he chose to foster open communication and collaboration.
For those who may be unfamiliar, throughout the 1980s, many UNC students took issue with the university's endowment that was invested in companies that participated in the system of racial segregation in South Africa. Students felt that the university's financial ties to these companies meant they, too, were complicit in supporting apartheid. Like today's Pro-Palestine activists, students and community members urged the administration to divest from South Africa. In November of 1986, students built shanty towns at Polk Place to reflect the conditions Black South Africans were forced to live in under apartheid. In many respects, the actual organizing and demands shared between the anti-apartheid student activists of the 1980s and the Pro-Palestine student protests of today are very similar. Both demanded that UNC divest all funds that supported oppressive regimes abroad and initiated shanty towns or encampments to make their presence heard.
At the onset of the anti-apartheid movement at UNC, Chancellor Fordham positioned himself as a fellow of the students protesting. Even though Fordham did not initially support divestment, he did not make himself an adversary of the student activists. In November of 1982, members of the UNC Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) protesting apartheid attempted to voice their concerns at a UNC Board of Trustees meeting.1 Fordham informed the protestors that they would not be permitted to speak at the meeting because they did not file in time for the agenda.2 However, instead of simply dismissing them, he advised the students to get on the agenda for the Endowment Board that was to meet that February.3 Craig Crutchfield, a spokesperson for PIRG, stated that Chancellor Fordham “welcomed the students and was pleased that they were willing to get involved in issues.”4 Fordham stated himself that “These are very fine people, and we want them to be concerned about such issues.”5 From the beginning, Chancellor Christopher C. Fordham III encouraged student activists to be concerned about injustice, and made it a point not to stand in their way.
Over the years, students continued to protest South African apartheid on campus. In November of 1986, The Daily Tar Heel reported that Vice Chancellor and Dean of Student Affairs, Donald Boulton, permitted the students to build shanties at Polk Place because the “student's right to protest must be protected.”6 For months, the UNC Anti-Apartheid Support Group was active on campus. Again, in March of 1986, students obtained permission to erect another shanty town in front of South Building.7 Several weeks later, five students were arrested for refusing to take down the shanties.8 Chancellor Christopher C. Fordham III stated that he would not press charges against the student protesters because they were "good students." Fordham is reported later stating that students vocalizing their concerns is “good for the University and the United States.”9 Chancellor Fordham was proud to have students standing up against the oppression of marginalized people worldwide.10 Finally, in October of 1987, UNC fully divested from South Africa.11
Interestingly, Chancellor Fordham did not attempt to curtail student activism in the same manner that Chancellor Roberts has. While Fordham may have pushed back on any unlawful means of action student protestors took, he did not meet his students with an outright dismissal of their concerns—or worse—police violence as means of repression. Fordham worked with student activists to find ways that made their methods of protest effective and permissible by University standards. He showed a real commitment to preserving his students’ right to free speech and assembly and was even proud of their dedication to voice their concern for injustice. On the other hand, Interim Chancellor Roberts approached protestors with a mass of police presence on campus. The Pro-Palestine student activists have not been taken seriously, and many were physically harmed during the process.
That Tuesday night, I went across campus to study with some friends. On my walk to their dorm building, I passed a row of police and military vehicles. Numerous police officers and sheriffs, all uniformed in riot gear, were sitting on the sidewalk talking to one another after what looked like a long day. It was a strange sight. By that time of night, I could not believe they were still on campus. The protestors had long been dispersed, and the various detainments and arrests had already been made. I walked past them quickly and texted my friends that they were sitting there outside their building. Considering the events that took place on campus in August that resulted in the death of Professor Zije Yan, the police presence on campus was deeply unsettling.
I am very disappointed in Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts. At the very least, he had an opportunity to listen to his students and try to understand where they were coming from. Nobody expects Roberts or the Board of Trustees to roll over and divest completely from Israel without some form of pushback. However, the "pushback" should not be recruiting masses of police officers and local law enforcement against your own students. The endless videos of police violence against peaceful student protestors across the country can make it easy to forget that this is not natural or inevitable. “University leaders like Lee Roberts would have you believe that they are merely doing their jobs—maintaining order and enforcing the rules with objectivity and “institutional neutrality.” Do not be convinced. The history of past university leadership’s actions shows that violent repression was not the only course of action Chancellor Roberts could have taken in response to student activists. This administration did not need to recruit police, arrest students, and then cynically smear them as violent anti-semites. But that is what they chose to do. This was not a neutral enforcement of the law but an explicitly political choice—one that shows this University’s inhumanity and disregard for free speech.
Ellmaker, Charles. “Student group protests UNC support of IBM.” The Daily Tar Heel, 15 Nov. 1982 pp. 1–1. Digital NC, https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073228/1982-11-15/ed-1/seq-3/#words=Chancellor+chancellor+Fordham+Fordham%27s+protest+protested+protesters+protesting+protests.
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Lutes, Jean. “Shanty Goes up for Divestment.” The Daily Tar Heel, 18 Nov. 1986, pp. 1–1. Digital NC, https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073228/1986-11-18/ed-1/seq-1.pdf.
Stiffler, Rachel. “Anti-Apartheid Group Builds Shanty Town.” The Daily Tar Heel, 17 Mar. 1986, pp. 1–2.
Moore, Toby. “Shanties Town down; 5 Students Arrested.” The Daily Tar Heel, 8 Apr. 1986, pp. 1–1.
Orr, Rachel. “Board will take divestment action.” The Daily Tar Heel, 24 Apr. 1986, pp.1-1. Digital NC, https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073228/1986-04-24/ed-1/seq-1.pdf
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Lutes, Jean. “University divests all funds.” The Daily Tar Heel, 2 Oct. 1987, pp. 1-1. Digital NC, https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073228/1987-10-02/ed-1/seq-1.pdf.
Additional Sources:
Anderson, Bryan. “Tensions Rise at U.N.C. Chapel Hill after Dozens of Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators Are Detained.” The New York Times, 30 Apr. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/04/30/nyregion/unc-chapel-hill-protests.html.
Carrier, Sarah. “LibGuides: Student Protest Movements at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Home.” Guides.lib.unc.edu, guides.lib.unc.edu/protests-unc#:~:text=The%20tradition%20of%20student%20activism. Accessed 18 May 2024.
Diaz, Jaclyn. “In NYC and LA, Police Response to Campus Protests Draws Sharp Criticism.” NPR, NPR, 8 May 2024, www.npr.org/2024/05/08/1248935672/campus-protests-police-arrests.
“Examining Police Brutality in North Carolina - Melrose Law.” Melrose Law, 12 May 2023, mountainverdict.com/examining-police-brutality-in-north-carolina/.
Henkel, Clayton. “Hundreds of Faculty and Staff Members Call on UNC-CH to Dismiss Charges against Student Protesters • NC Newsline.” NC Newsline, 6 May 2024, ncnewsline.com/briefs/hundreds-of-faculty-and-staff-members-call-on-unc-ch-to-dismiss-charges-against-student-protesters/. Accessed 18 May 2024.
Keck, Aaron. “‘Academic Freedom Is at the Core’: UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts on Protests and Policing.” Chapelboro.com, 14 May 2024, chapelboro.com/news/unc/academic-freedom-is-at-the-core-unc-chancellor-lee-roberts-on-protests-and-policing. Accessed 18 May 2024.
Livingston, Walker. “Encampment and Protests Echo Anti-War, Anti-Apartheid Demands of UNC’s Past.” Encampment and Protests Echo Anti-War, Anti-Apartheid Demands of UNC’s Past -, 30 Apr. 2024, www.dailytarheel.com/article/2024/05/university-historical-antiwar-demands-encampment-protests. Accessed 18 May 2024.
McConnell, Brighton. “UNC Arrests Pro-Palestine Protesters, Sweeps Protest Site While Citing University Policy.” Chapelboro.com, 30 Apr. 2024, chapelboro.com/news/unc/pro-palestine-protestors-arrested-at-unc-after-university-says-demonstration-breaks-policy. Accessed 18 May 2024.
Parsons, Grant. “‘Berlin Wall’ Built to Protest Shanties.” The Daily Tar Heel, 1 Apr. 1986, p. 1.
Pezenik, Sasha, and Josh Margolin. “Police Carry out Complex Choreography in Responding to Campus Protests: ‘You Need Decisive Action.’” ABC News, 3 May 2024, abcnews.go.com/US/police-carry-complex-choreography-responding-campus-protests-decisive/story?id=109906200.